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Sociolinguistics from the Periphery "presents a fascinating book about change: shifting political, economic and cultural conditions; ephemeral, sometimes even seasonal, multilingualism; and altered imaginaries for minority and indigenous languages and their users."

As described by the authors in the introduction, this book is a beginning Spanish course aimed at students with no previous knowledge of Spanish. Part I is divided into twenty units, centered on one or more topics or functions. Chapters 1 through 5 provide instructions in both English and Spanish, and only in Spanish from Chapter 6 on. Each unit is divided into four sections: 'Presentación y prácticas' is meant to introduce functions, and new structures and vocabulary; 'Comprensión auditiva' provides listening exercises based on these functions; 'Consolidación' contains written revision exercises; and 'Gramática' provides explanations of all new grammar points in English. Part II includes Teachers' Guidelines, including a sample unit, solutions to the written exercises, and tape scripts for most of the listening activities that appear in the text. Part III contains reference tools and study aids such as a student guide to grammar terms, a list of Spanish verbs with conjugations, a Spanish/English-English/Spanish glossary, and an index of grammar, topics, and functions.

CHAPTER BY CHAPTER SUMMARY

The Chapters in Part I present topics, functions and grammatical points in the following order:

Chapter 1 (¿Cómo te llamas?). Topics and functions: How to greet people in Spanish, giving and asking for personal information, and spelling names in Spanish. Grammatical points: saying "hello" and "goodbye" and introducing people, the present tense forms of 'ser' and 'llamarse', demonstrative adjectives and pronouns, questions, negation, pronunciation of vowels and consonants, word stress and the written accent.

Chapter 6 (De viaje) (first chapter with instructions only in Spanish).Topics and functions: telling the time, days of the week, months and dates, transportation and buying tickets, booking a hotel room, holidays, the weather. Grammatical points: telling time and asking when something happens, days of the week, the date and the seasons, the verbs 'hacer', 'llegar' and 'salir', verbs followed by an infinitive, formal letters (greetings and endings).

Chapter 8 (Cuando era pequeño). Topics and functions: talking about what you used to do, comparing people and places in the past, comparing past and present, saying what people were doing at a particular time. Grammatical points: forms and uses of the imperfect, time phrases used with the imperfect, the verb 'soler'.

Chapter 10 (¿Qué van a tomar?). Topics and functions: ordering a meal in a restaurant, talking about preferences, saying how long you have been doing something, asking if something is allowed, physical and mental states with tener. Grammatical points: the present indicative of 'poder' and 'tener', states with tener, direct object pronouns, the personal "a", familiar commands and pronoun placement, the passive and impersonal se.

Chapter 11 (¿Qué harás este fin de semana?). Topics and functions: making and talking about future plans, making, accepting and refusing invitations, and writing letters and using the telephone. Grammatical points: expressions for talking on the telephone, uses of the gerund and the present continuous, the future tense, uses of the verb 'pensar'.

Chapter 12 (¿Qué te pasa? ¿Cómo estás?). Topics and functions: parts of the body, talking about health and how you are feeling, talking about problems and how to solve them, describing states. Grammatical points: 'ser'/'estar', obligation ('deber', 'hacer falta').

Chapter 13 (¿Qué has hecho esta semana?). Topics and functions: talking about what you and others have done, saying how long you have been doing something. Grammatical points: present perfect, direct and indirect object pronouns, negation, the adverbs 'ya', 'todavía', 'aun', 'ni siquiera'.

Chapter 14 (¿Qué pasó?) Topics and functions: events in the past, the order in which things happened, getting people to talk about what happened to them. Grammatical points: the preterit, the preterit and the imperfect, the preterit and the perfect, time expressions used with the preterit and other past tenses.

Chapter 15 (Ya se había marchado). Topics and functions: saying what happened and the circumstances in which it happened, telling someone's life story, speaking of what had already taken place. Grammatical points: stem-changing/irregular verbs in the preterit, the pluperfect.

Chapter 16 (Cuando llegue el verano...). Topics and functions: talking about what you may do in the future, saying what might or might not happen. Grammatical points: the subjunctive (the future, doubt, uncertainty).

Chapter 17 (Quiero que vengas): Topics and functions: describing your ideal partner, apartment, etc., saying what you feel about things, saying what you want to happen, telling others what to do. Grammatical points: the uses of the subjunctive.

Chapter 19 (¿Qué harías?). Topics and functions: describing hypothetical places, saying what you would do in a hypothetical situation, reporting what was said or done. Grammatical points: the conditional, the passive voice, 'ser' +past participle vs. 'estar' + past participle.

Chapter 20 (Si fuera millionario). Topics and functions: Reporting what you would do if..., giving advice, reporting what others wanted you to do. Grammatical points: the imperfect subjunctive, conditional sentences and the subjunctive, a checklist of when to use the subjunctive, the indicative or the infinitive.

EVALUATION

This textbook has some desirable qualities that are often absent in beginning Spanish textbooks. The tips in the learner guide are extremely practical, and point the student who takes the time to read them towards out-of-class activities that can enhance the learning experience. The tips for gaining linguistic awareness specifically encourage learners to look for language patterns in Spanish, and to notice patterns that are similar and different in their native language and Spanish.

Each chapter is headed by a Learning Aims section that explicitly spells out the functions and topics of each unit. In this way students are made aware of the specific objectives of each new chapter.

The earlier chapters in this book recycle material such as vocabulary and grammatical points, thus providing the students with multiple exposures to the same material. For example, to complete a writing activity in Chapter 2 students must refer back to information contained in Chapter 1. Chapter 9 uses clothing vocabulary to review noun- adjective agreement, which is introduced in detail in Chapter 3.

Throughout, the book explicitly points out useful facts that students too often do not learn until too late when they are already making errors, for example, subject pronouns are used sparingly in Spanish, mostly for emphasis or to avoid ambiguity; question words have written accents on the stressed syllable; -o is generally masculine and -a is generally feminine, but in addition, certain suffixes (-ción,-dad) are generally associated with masculine or feminine gender.

Most of the readings in the book are authentic materials, either adapted from or taken directly from Spanish language newspapers, and in many cases they are followed by web addresses (e.g. www.lamoncloa.es) that students can consult for further information in the target language.

Despite these positive characteristics, this book is characterized by a number of shortcomings that may not make it the ideal textbook for the average U.S., college-age learner of Spanish. The authors purposely used a standard presentation throughout the book. Material is presented in roughly the same way, in the same order for the entire 20 Chapters, thus allowing for very little variety of presentation. Especially in the more advanced chapters, much of the "contextual" presentation of topics is accomplished through reading and listening to dialogues or introductory texts while reading along and then answering a series of questions. The book makes scant use of picture stories or drawings.

The introduction states that the emphasis is on communication, but merely doing activities in the target language is not necessarily communicative. It is true that especially in the earlier chapters there is a good variety of information gapping and describing activities, but throughout the book, a number of functions are introduced exclusively with fill-in-the-blank type or transformation exercises. In this way, grammar exercises consistently find their way into the 'Presentación y Prácticas' section, which is meant to introduce new structures and vocabulary in context. For example, in Chapter 4 (p. 82) '¿Conocer o Saber?' is a fill-in-the blanks exercise not based on any activity that presents the concept in context. In Chapter 9 (pp. 174-5) comparisons are not introduced contextually, but as a series of example sentences followed by an exercise of the type: "El perro no es...independiente...el gato." In Chapter 15 (p. 286), the function of telling what had already taken place is introduced by a paragraph in which students are asked to underline all verbs in the pluperfect tense, followed by a transformation exercise of the type: Belén; "No sonó el despertador."-->"Belén dijo que no había sonado el despertador". Additionally, the book would be better organized if the 'Consolidación' and 'Gramática' sections were combined into one. The large amounts of grammatical information provided would be easier to assimilate if each new point and sub point were followed by a relevant exercise through which to apply the new concepts.

The order in which grammar points are introduced is somewhat mystifying. For example, Chapter 1 introduces a host of grammar points, including all the demonstrative adjectives and pronouns, while the more basic definite and indefinite articles are not introduced until Chapter 3. Indirect object pronouns make their appearance in Chapter 5, direct and indirect object pronouns appear together in Chapter 9, and direct object pronouns appearing alone are first discussed in Chapter 10. Chapter 8 is entirely dedicated to the forms and uses of the imperfect, while the preterit is not mentioned until Chapter 14. It is discussed again in Chapter 15. The remaining chapters introduce the pluperfect, the present subjunctive, polite and informal positive and negative commands, the conditional, the passive voice, and the imperfect subjunctive. Thus, while the earlier chapters effectively recycle vocabulary and grammar, the second half of the text introduces a large number of grammar points in quick succession, with little opportunity for repeated exposure or practice.

According the introduction, the book aims to develop a broad awareness of cultural contexts in which Spanish is written and spoken both in Spain and Latin America. It is, however, heavily tilted toward Spain. For example, on p. 28, the book states that: "Lunch (el almuerzo/la comida) is much later in Spain than in the English-speaking countries." It does not then explain if this is true also in different Latin American countries. Much of the vocabulary is clearly inspired in Peninsular Spanish, with occasional explanations that vocabulary may vary somewhat in Latin American countries (e.g. clothing vocabulary, use of the verb 'coger'). Spain seems to be painted in a more positive light than Latin American countries. For example, in Chapter 3 one reading (p. 68) begins with: "Madrid es una ciudad fascinante, cosmopolita, llena de vida." On page 70, the reading on Latin America begins with: "Unos 100 millones de menores viven y trabajan en las calles de las ciudades del mundo en desarrollo. En América Latina hay cerca de 40 millones." In addition, much of the realia and many of the readings are drawn from Peninsular sources. For example, Chapter 6 (De viaje) includes the following activities: '¿Qué trenes hay para Madrid?' (dialogue), 'Estación de Atocha' (interpreting a train schedule from Madrid to Sevilla), '¿Qué tiempo hace en Santander?' (a weather map of Spain), 'Excursiones' ( a tour of Galicia), 'Billete de Tren' (a ticket from RENFE, the Spanish national railroad). Travel destinations in Latin America are only briefly mentioned in a listening exercise in the 'Comprensión auditiva' section. Chapter 9, on shopping, uses the floor plan of 'El Corte Inglés', the largest department store in Spain, and in all the dialogues in the Comprensión auditiva section, all prices are in euros. There are roughly 12 authentic readings in the text: 10 are drawn from Peninsular newspapers, including regional publications like the 'Heraldo de Aragón', while only 2 come from Latin American sources. There are three additional articles included in the 'Comprensión auditiva' section, all from the Peninsular press. Of an additional eleven readings not drawn from the press, eight are about Spain, and three are about Latin America. There are three maps of Spain, one detailing all the 'comunidades autónomas', and a street map of Oviedo. There are two maps of Columbia, each showing only Bogotá. There are no other maps of Latin America.

On the cultural awareness level, the book presents the additional problem that some of the activities will not be relevant to U.S. students, and many of the grammar explanations will appear stilted because they use structures that are not usual in Standard American English. For example, Chapter 5 explains that: "En España las horas de las comidas son distintas a las de Inglaterra". If they are not the same in England as in the U.S. such an explanation does little to clarify what they might be in Spain. In Chapter 11, students are invited to accept an invitation from the Spanish consul in Liverpool, and in Chapter 14, they are asked to read a text and answer questions about the experiences of a young Spanish woman during her first year in Sheffield. Likewise, in Chapter 11 (p. 224), for example, the grammar section states that: "Spanish sometimes uses the present where English uses a future. ¿Quieres dejarme una libra? ¿Me dejas una libra? Will you lend me a pound?" American English does not use the future in this way, so the explanation may lead to confusion. There are other such examples throughout the book.

It is laudable that this textbook pays attention to pronunciation and phonetics, an all-too-often ignored area of foreign language study. Nonetheless, the pronunciation sections are plagued with inaccuracies that could have been corrected prior to publication by consulting any good phonetics textbook (e.g. Teschner 2000). For example, the explanation of diphthongs on p. 30 of the text reads: "Vowels can come in twos or threes. They are not separate sounds but nevertheless need to be pronounced clearly..." This is patently incorrect. Diphthongs and diphthongs are indeed two or three separate vowel sounds, but they do not occur in two or three separate syllables. The explanation of strong and weak vowels is similarly misleading, stating that "a", "e", "o" are strong vowels and "i", "u", and "y" at the end of a word are weak. This is not so. All vowels are strong in their own syllable (e.g. hijo, humo), and "i" and "u" additionally are strong when they are stressed (e.g. ha-cia vs. ha-cí-a) next to another strong vowel. The vowels "i" and "u" are only weak when they appear unstressed in a single syllable together with a strong vowel as part of a diphthong. More worrisome are the suggested pronunciations for Spanish vowels (e.g. "a" as in "cat", e.g. "casa," "o" as is American English "boat", e.g. "piloto", "u" as in "moon", e.g. "club"), which will lead to pronunciations that should be avoided in Spanish, characteristic of the complex vowel nuclei of English. The "a" of "cat" is slightly higher and more fronted that the Spanish /a/. Dalbor (1997: 141) suggests that it sounds like the vowel in 'hot' in most American dialects, but that it is more open, tenser and shorter in duration. According to Dalbor (p. 144) the Spanish "o" is similar to the first part of the English complex vowel nucleus (diphthong) in 'boat'.

This lack of attention to detail is evident at other points in the text. For example, to express existence in Spanish it is usual to use the verb 'haber' ('hay'), but not with the definite article ('un'/'una'). An exercise on p. 62 asks: "¿Qué más hay en tu ciudad?". The prompts appear as: "un buzón, la playa, la parada del autobús, la parada del metro, el teléfono público", which will result in incorrect structures such as: *"Hay la playa. *Hay la parada", instead of "Hay UNA playa. Hay UNA parada.". Another example is to be found in the explanation of indirect object pronouns. The grammatically unacceptable *"La dependienta da el cambio a Luis", (without the use of "le") is used to illustrate the concept of "to whom". Spanish uses both the explicit indirect object and the pronoun together, so students who model their output on the example given will produce structures that are grammatically inaccurate in Spanish.

To summarize, this text is not quite as communicative, nor does it create as broad-based a cultural awareness of the Spanish-speaking world, as was promised in the introduction. In addition, it may not be the most adequate text for a U.S. American audience without revision of grammatical explanations to reflect usage in American English, and of activities that may be culturally irrelevant for students who may or may not be familiar with England and English customs and cities. Finally, it contains some inaccuracies that may led to incorrect output, which should be adressed before the publication of the second edition.

Regina Morin is Associate Professor of Spanish and Linguistics in the Department of Modern Languages at The College of New Jersey. She received her Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics from Georgetown University in Washington D.C. in 1997. Areas of interest include second language vocabulary acquisition, techniques for teaching phonetics and pronunciation in beginning level Spanish classes, Spanish/English borrowing as a result of the spread of Information and Communication Technologies.